Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(COVID-19)
Situation Report – 163
Data as received by WHO from national authorities by 10:00 CEST, 1 July 2020
Highlights
It has never been clearer that communication is an important public health intervention that
contributes to controlling pandemics. The WHO Regional Office for Europe discusses this and
the risks of an “infodemic” – an overabundance of information, some of which can be
misleading or even harmful. WHO launched the first Infodemiology conference on 29 June,
which includes talks with experts on how the infodemic affects the world and reflections on
how it can be managed.
Cambodia has been responding to a measles outbreak at the same time as the COVID-19
outbreak. WHO has supported efforts for routine immunization in Cambodia at health care
facilities, and in the community through outreach teams.
WHO has published an update to the scientific brief on smoking and COVID-19, which assesses
the available evidence on the risk of smokers being infected by the virus, severity of disease,
and deaths among hospitalized COVID-19 patients who smoke. The conclusion remains that
smoking appears associated with increased severity of disease and death in hospitalized
COVID-19 patients.
In today’s Subject in Focus below, we provide an update on WHO’s efforts to bolster the COVID-
19 supply chain system.
Globally 10 357 662 cases (163 939) 508 055 deaths (4 188)
Africa 306 794 cases (9 504) 6 192 deaths (182)
Americas 5 218 590 cases (81 885) 249 318 deaths (2 189)
Eastern Mediterranean 1 077 426 cases (19 371) 24 970 deaths (547)
Europe 2 728 059 cases (27 624) 197 874 deaths (615)
South-East Asia 808 906 cases (23 975) 22 235 deaths (642)
Western Pacific 217 146 cases (1 580) 7 453 deaths (13)
Subject in Focus: COVID-19 Supply Chain System – Progress Update
Personal Protective Equipment
Through the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) purchasing consortium, WHO has secured
140.8 million pieces of equipment, which are being shipped to 135 countries in all WHO
regions. WHO is also delivering an additional 100 million medical masks and 1 million N95
respirators donated by the Jack Ma Foundation.
In the WHO Region of the Americas, PPE has been delivered to Ecuador and shipments are
presently en route to Peru, Barbados, Belize, El Salvador, Paraguay, and Venezuela.
A total of 41 million PPE items are being prepared for delivery as a matter of priority to all
African countries in the coming weeks.
PPE for allocation to all Eastern Mediterranean Region countries has arrived in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates, and are being prepared for shipment.
In the European Region, PPE has been delivered to Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Ukraine.
Allocations to Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova are ready to ship and will be dispatched in the
coming week.
Diagnostics
Through the diagnostics purchasing consortium, WHO, UNICEF and the Global Fund have
procured close to 6 million polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests from several manufacturers,
for allocation to 132 countries.
Tests are being produced and packed by suppliers for shipment in the coming weeks. As of 29
June, 392 258 PCR tests have been delivered to 28 countries. An additional 1.4 million tests are
presently in transit to 40 countries.
A total of 5.2 million sample collection kits have been procured, of which 184 640 kits have
been delivered to 19 countries. Currently, 235 020 sample collection kits are in transit to 24
countries.
The Diagnostics Pillar has completed the following documentation to clarify the diagnostics
request and allocation process:
Procedures for requesting diagnostics tests through the COVID-19 Supply Portal
Biomedical Equipment
Many countries have had particular difficulty obtaining oxygen concentrators, which produce
medical oxygen and are essential to saving the lives of patients with severe COVID-19. By
working with private sector networks to purchase oxygen concentrators from the handful of
manufacturers around the world that produce this equipment, WHO and consortium partners
are beginning to deliver these lifesaving devices to countries most in need. Of the initial 4000
oxygen concentrators WHO has procured, 3265 have been delivered to 18 countries and 637
are in transit to 10 additional countries.
Of the second procurement of 10 000 oxygen concentrators, 5000 have been delivered to a
warehouse in China and are being prepared for shipment in July.
Case definitions
WHO periodically updates the Global Surveillance for human infection with coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) document which includes surveillance definitions.
Caution must be taken when interpreting all data presented. Differences are to be expected
between information products published by WHO, national public health authorities, and
other sources using different inclusion criteria and different data cut-off times. While steps
are taken to ensure accuracy and reliability, all data are subject to continuous verification and
change. Case detection, definitions, testing strategies, reporting practice, and lag times differ
between countries/territories/areas. These factors, amongst others, influence the counts
presented, with variable underestimation of true case and death counts, and variable delays
to reflecting these data at global level.
The designations employed, and the presentation of these materials do not imply the
expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WHO concerning the legal status of any
country, territory or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or
boundaries. Dotted and dashed lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which
there may not yet be full agreement. Countries, territories and areas are arranged under the
administering WHO region.
The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that
they are endorsed or recommended by WHO in preference to others of a similar nature that
are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are
distinguished by initial capital letters.
[1]
All references to Kosovo should be understood to be in the context of the United Nations
Security Council resolution 1244 (1999). In the map, number of cases of Serbia and Kosovo
(UNSCR 1244, 1999) have been aggregated for visualization purposes.
Due to the recent trend of countries conducting data reconciliation exercises which remove
large numbers of cases or deaths from their total counts, WHO will now display such data as
negative numbers in the “new cases” / “new deaths” columns as appropriate. This will aid
readers in identifying when such adjustments occur. When additional details become
available that allow the subtractions to be suitably apportioned to previous days, graphics will
be updated accordingly. Prior situation reports will not be edited; see covid19.who.int for the
most up-to-date data.
Additional table notes
i
Transmission classification is based on a process of country/territory/area self-reporting.
Classifications are reviewed on a weekly basis and may be revised as new information
becomes available. and. Differing degrees of transmission may be present within
countries/territories/areas; classification is based on the highest category reported within a
country/territory/area. Categories:
• Update 1 July 2020, Kazakhstan: From 1 July onwards, cases reported include both
asymptomatic and symptomatic cases. The previously unreported asymptomatic cases
were added on the case counts for 1 July.
• Update 1 July 2020, Belgium: Counts adjusted retrospectively by national authorities:
death counts adjusted between 10 March and 30 June as national authorities revised
their historical data.
• Update 1 July 2020, Kazakhstan: Counts adjusted retrospectively by national authorities:
case counts adjusted between 14 March and 30 March and between 21 June and 30
June.